Google Analytics defines bounce rate as “the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page.” Wikipedia defines it as “the percentage of initial visitors to a site who bounce away to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.”

Both of these above definitions basically say the same thing. What a marketer needs to know is that the lower the bounce rate, the better. So what is considered a good bounce rate? There are actually many different opinions on this. Some experts say that 50% is average and anything lower is considered above average. Others say that a number below 30% is what you should be striving for.

Monitoring your bounce rate can be a very valuable tool, but also a bit misleading and therefore should definitely not be the only way you are measuring your performance. A high bounce rate typically translates into a visitor that was not sufficiently engaged and left your site without so much as visiting a second page. A high bounce rate is also an indication that your visitor was not as qualified as you had hoped for.

That being said, this may not always hold true for lead generation sites. Think about it this way…lets say that you’re running a Pay per Click (PPC) Campaign, you have a lead generation site and you are sending visitors directly to your form page. If a visitor fills out the form and your website is not configured correctly (in other words, the URL does not change when the form is filled out), this could result in a “bounce” when in actuality, your searcher completed the desired action item. This often occurs with blogs, as well. Visitors will reach your blog, read all of the way through and then exit when done. For this reason, blogs tend to have a high bounce rate, as well.

While I encourage you to pay attention to your bounce rate, as it can be a useful way to gauge progress, other factors should also considered, such as time on site, landing page quality, percentage of new visitors, etc.

Think you don’t have a large enough marketing budget to advertise online? With most search engine advertising platforms, there is no minimum to get started. Online advertising has very little cost of entry. Now, what can advertisers do to maximize their modest budgets?

With major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, there are options to set daily budgets. The advertiser has 100% control over what they spend each day. Ad scheduling is another feature that helps advertisers to maximize their budget. By allowing ads to only run during specified hours of the day, marketers can show ads only when they want and not at other times.

Geo-targeting is another tactic to help stretch a smaller budget. By only showing ads to searchers in a specific area, advertisers can limit traffic to their site and conserve their budget for a more qualified audience.

Using negatives will prevent your ads from being displayed when that particular word is searched. This feature will limit clicks from irrelevant searches and help to save marketing dollars. For example, if a company sells men’s jackets, a good negative would be “women’s” so that if someone searches for “women’s jackets”, the ad would not be shown because it is not relevant and the company doesn’t sell that product.

Even with a modest budget, there are many ways to advertise online. By making strategic choices, marketers have the ability to utilize their budget and get great results.

With the 2009 Holiday season behind us many ecommerce businesses will see a sharp decline in their sales.  So how can ecommerce retailers still bring in revenue without feeling the pinch of the slow economy?  The answer is; incentives, incentives, incentives.

Ecommerce retailers should be especially attentive to product prices.  Even though the holiday season is over, it is still important to be competitive and aggressive.  Searchers are always looking for the best deal regardless of the time of year.

Use ad copy such as, ‘after holiday free shipping’ to entice customers to purchase.  If free shipping is not an option, perhaps charge a small fee to ship regardless of the order size.  For example, charge $1 to ship anywhere in the continental U.S.  This promotion depends greatly on the size and weight of the products you will be shipping.

Is free shipping not an option?  Try offering a free gift with purchase.  This is a great way to move old inventory.  Gift with purchases increase the customer’s perceived value of the overall purchase. You can also offer a gift certificate for a small amount for the shopper to use on their next purchase.   Not only does this give your customer an incentive to return, but also helps build loyalty to your site.

Another way to capture shoppers is to consider specials for upcoming holidays.  For example offer special deals or savings for Presidents or Valentine’s Day.

Although times are tough and the economy is still sluggish; you can still be a shinning star in your industry by thinking outside the box.  Now is your opportunity to attract new customers, as well as retain old ones.  Whatever promotion you decide to utilize, be sure that your efforts are reflected in your search engine marketing campaigns.  Remember to keep to the message cohesive between your site and your ppc ads.  With the amount of people searching on Google, Bing and Yahoo you can get your 2010 sales started off with a bang.